MP

Carryn Sullivan (ALP) since 2001.

Profile

An electorate at the southern end of the Sunshine Coast, Pumicestone has two distinct ends. In the east it includes the retirement haven of Bribie Island, which is separated from the mainland by the Pumicestone Channel after which the electorate is named. In the west the electorate covers most of the regional centre of Caboolture between the Caboolture River and D'Aguilar Highway.

Background

Pumicestone was created by the redistribution ahead of the 2001 election and replaced the abolished electorate of Caboolture. Labor held since 1989, Caboolture had fallen to One Nation's Bill Feldman at the 1998 election. Like all One Nation MPs, Feldman split from the party during his first term and went to the 2001 election as Leader of the City-Country Alliance. The redistribution split his old seat between semi-rural Glass House and urban Pumicestone. Feldman chose to contest Pumicestone, but finished fourth with 15.5% of the vote, behind both the Liberal and One Nation candidates. More than 60% of preferences exhausted, inflating the Labor Party majority and electing current MP Carryn Sullivan. Sullivan is the wife of former MP for Caboolture Jon Sullivan, who has since served in Federal parliament as member for the local seat of Longman 2007-10. In 2004 there was a swing against Labor caused by the return of the breakaway conservative vote to the Liberal Party, but Labor retained its margin at both the 2006 and 2009 elections.

At 30.8% Pumicestone has the state's highest proportion of residents aged over 60.

2-Party Booth Results

Labor's best results were in the west of the electorate around Caboolture, recording 67.4% of the 2-party preferred vote at Caboolture State High and 69.0% at the external joint booth at Morayfield State High. The LNP recorded majorities in three booths, two along the Pumicestone Channel at Donnybrook and Toorbul, the best result being 54.4% at Banksia Beach Primary School on Bribie Island.

2010 Federal Election Results

Pumicestone is contained entirely within the Federal electorate of Longman, held before the 2010 election by Labor's Jon Sullivan, the husband of Pumicestone MP Carryn Sullivan. Jon Sullivan was defeated at the 2010 election by the LNP's Wyatt Roy, his results producing an LNP majority of 53.7% of the 2-party preferred vote within the boundaries of Pumicestone.

2012 BALLOT PAPER (4 Candidates)

Candidate Name

Party

FRANCE, Lisa

LNP

FITZGIBBON, Jenny

The Greens

SULLIVAN, Carryn

Australian Labor Party

KING, Brandt

The Australian Party

CANDIDATES

Lisa France

Liberal National Party

Born in Nambour, France has lived on Bribie Island since she was 15. She attended local schools before completing a Bachelor of Applied Science (Coastal Management) at Southern Cross University in Lismore. She has since completed further studies in Environmental Law, Environmental Economics, Globalisation and Sustainability and worked for Caboolture Shire Council in environmental assessment and management and as an environmental scientist in both Australia and England. France has since had a change of career, since 2003 working with her family's real estate business, becoming Principal Licencee in 2009.

Fitzgibbon is an Industrial Design engineer and Aged Carer by training, worked for 10 years as an administrator in a revegetation business and is currently a professional musician. She has also worked as an office manager and fundraising coordinator for Oxfam/Community Aid Abroad. Fitzgibbon contested the neighbouring electorate of Glass House at the 2009 election and polled 17.6%.

Aged 56, Sullivan is the wife of Jon Sullivan, a former state MP for Caboolture 1989-98 and federal MP for Longman 2007-10. Carryn Sullivan worked as a primary school teacher until the early 1980s, leaving the profession to concentrate on raising her family. She served on Caboolture Shire Council 1991-94 representing Bribie Island and won the new seat of Pumicestone in 2001. Her victory in 2001 was over former One Nation Leader Bill Feldman, who had defeated her husband at the 1998 election.

King has worked as a conveyancing paralegal for the past four years but previously worked for Queensland Rail for two decades. He has served as Vice President of the Caboolture Retail and Traders Association and has been involved in a number of committees within the Caboolture Business Enterprise Centre. He is a foundation member of Think Tank Working Group Caboolture.